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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DM_Jeff" data-source="post: 4931079" data-attributes="member: 3687">Where to begin. I said on Paizo's forums I wasn't going to chime in for 3pp for Pathfinder the way I had in early Third Edition and get burned. I was given some hope by others that all the companies by now had learned their lessons and the glut/bandwagon-jumping phase was over. I also wanted to show my support for the system that will carry my group forward on their so I preordered it.Now, I'm writing these notes while in a bad mood, which isn't good. It's also not good that I woke up this morning in a good mood, and now that I have read my print copy of Tome of Secrets I'm now in this bad mood.* The font is gigantic. It's easy to see how this book could have been half the size. Space is wasted with class charts taking up entire pages and handfuls of empty white space. The presentation isn't pretty.* The art is just functional. Most of it is a solid 4.5. There's one or two rating around a 7 and a bunch of what look like half-finished sketches around a 1.* The races are fine but don't interest me. They might impress your group but they contain now 'wow' factor in their text at all. 3pp burnout on my part? No doubt.* The classes are almost exclusively cobbled together class features and feats from the PFRPG reprinted in new combinations and called new things like the Warlock and the Swashbuckler. They also use words and rule references to things that do not exist in the Pathfinder RPG. Reprinting things in completion from the core book is no way to impress.* Chases are supposed to be quick and chaotic and exciting. I find that a rules system spaning nearly 40pages is, just...40 pages? I can't even bring my self to read them all. Why in the middle of describing a roll-about-smack-down action chase would I want to stop and consult charts, work formulas and deal with minutae? I wouldn't. You might, so they may be fun for you.* Morale is similarly spread out over 15 pages which is simply entirely too much for a game that is moving to speed up third edition play, not bog it down in lengthy details.* Skillful stunts just confused me. It may be very good for some groups. It tries to tack on rules for GM handwaving that come up when players try off-the-wall creative things in combat not covered by the rules. The whole point of them being fun, to me, is that they are NOT covered in the rules, not classified and codified. * One million magic items is OK, but not for me. Randomly roll a prefix, weapon, and suffix. That's fine. Now there's rules attached to each, many of which are worded poorly or incomplete. Yes, you can have a dagger that once every two days can disintigrate a planet.* The monster modifier and random adventurer generator are fine but of no interest to me. I have plenty of these things already. If you don't you may get utility out of this.What do I like? I like Alchemical items. They seems creative and simple to use. I like Drawbacks and Occupations. So far they've proven well thought out and useful to the game. Their section on Flintlocks and Fantasy was a good enough read and seems useful.It's a shame I was told in advance that this book is a whole bunch of mini PDFs that Adamant sold for 3.5 and now 'updated' because now it feels like recylced material. I picture someone using the search and replace feature to remove "3.5" and replace with "The Pathfinder RPG".So, less than a quarter of the book will see use in my game. In general, I feel that $35 is way, way too much for this book and doesn't strive to raise any bar for others to beat. What this means is any more Pathfinder support from pretty much anyone besides well-established long-term companies will begin with zero trust from me, and that's a shame. -DM Jeff</blockquote>

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